The Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association's annual Rusty Duncan seminar wrapped up over the weekend. Of course, there were the big name attorneys that spoke like Gerry Spence and "Racehorse" Haynes who gave the usual talks about their career ("Racehorse" said it was ok that I wear boots in court, I checked). However, one of the best talks came from a personal injury lawyer from Austin, Dicky Grigg.
Mr. Grigg's topic was titled "Guantanamo: It Is Not About Them - It Is About Us." Let me say that I was moved by his talk. I had never been so attentive in my life. I think he cured me of my ADD, albeit for only 45 minutes.
Mr. Grigg is a volunteer member of the "Guantanamo Bar Association" organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights to do what they can on behalf of the Guantanamo detainees. His clients have been Afghan "dirt farmers" who were not captured in combat but were turned over to the U.S. by Afghan or Pakistani "bounty hunters," like 90% of the Guantanamo prisoners, who originally numbered about 750.
Mr. Grigg told of his trip to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay to meet his first client, Mohammad Akhtiar. Akhtiar, a 56 year-old Afghan father of nine, had been held without a trial for three years. He was accused of launching a rocket attack on U.S. troops in 2003. Grigg said Akhtiar denied these charges insisting that he was in Pakistan at the time. He also claimed to be a supporter of the United States who fought the occupying Soviet Army in the 1980s and opposed the Taliban as part of the Northern Alliance in 2001. However, a tribunal of U.S. military officers, meeting in secret after a hearing that included Akhtiar, confirmed Akhtiar's status as an enemy combatant in November 2003.
Akhtiar was caught in a legal battle over where to draw the line between protecting Americans from terrorism and safeguarding constitutional rights. After 9/11, President Bush declared the captured men enemy combatants not subject to U.S. laws or treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, which set protections for prisoners of war.
The "Guantanamo Bar Association" clashed with the Bush administration over where to draw the line between combating terrorism and safeguarding constitutional rights — producing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2006 that allowed detainees to petition for writs of habeas corpus, which challenge the legality of detentions, in federal court. The Republican-led Congress, saying classified information could be placed at risk in federal court proceedings, followed with legislation stripping federal courts of authority to hear cases from Guantanamo in the Military Commissions Act. The MCA was another attempt to deny detainees the right to a fair hearing to challenge their detention.
In
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. (2008), the Center for Constitutional Rights challenged the Military Commissions Act. On June 12, 2008, the Supreme Court held that the part of the MCA that blocked the federal courts from hearing habeas corpus claims of detainees at Guantanamo was unconstitutional and that procedures set out by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 are an inadequate substitute for habeas.
Mr. Grigg spoke of the details that nagged at him after his one meeting with his new client. Prosecutors say Akhtiar's membership in the Itihad Islami military force is evidence of connection to a terrorist group. However, Itihad Islami was a U.S. ally in ousting the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, and its name does not appear on the State and Homeland Security departments' lists of terror organizations. His client told of numerous interrogation techniques without emotion until he spoke of being stripped in front of women. "When he talked about that, his voice cracked, and his eyes filled with tears. I mean, you could feel the humiliation," Grigg said. But Grigg's lasting impression of the interview came toward the end, when Akhtiar asked how he was being paid. Griggs said he wasn't. "He got emotional, and teared up, and he took my hand and thanked me profusely and asked Allah to bless me," Grigg said. "And that was extemely moving for me. Going down there and doing this was the most moving experience I've ever had as a lawyer."
Mr. Grigg ended his talk with a quote from Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, "The question is not, will we survive Guantanamo, because of course we will survive Guantanamo. The question is: Will we survive Guantanamo as a great nation?" Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift was appointed to represent detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan before the U. S. Supreme Court and was forced out of the Navy after successfully representing Hamdan.
Not to leave you hanging, Akhtiar was among 17 Guantanamo detainees transferred December 16, 2006 to five nations based on recommendations from U.S. military review boards. He was immediately released by the Afghan government and has reunited with his wife and nine children.
After savin' a little coin recently, I went out to the local men's store to buy me a new blazer 'cause my old one has seen better days and started to smell like the jail house funk. Anyhoo, as I'm checkin' out the fit in the mirror by the dressing rooms, I justa 'bout choked on my toothpick as I saw John Healey staring back at me from a picture on the wall. As I'm getting a better look at the picture, the salesman walks up to see how I'm doin' and I ask him about the picture. The salesman says, "That's John Healey, Ft. Bend County District Attorney. He comes in here all the time. He models for us." You don't say. I was grinning from ear to ear as I knew exactly where that picture was going to be posted.
